The drama takes place in the near future, when a police detective who had been executed for murdering his wife takes a miracle drug and is brought back to life as a "second-class citizen" working as a private investigator while looking for his wife’s real killer.

Barry will pen the script and exec produce the CBS Television Studios entry alongside Stephen Hegyes via their Reality Distortion Field banner.

While the CBS series stops short of confirming that "second-class citizens" are zombies, the book describes its lead, Hessius Mann, as being among the town's "pulse-challenged population" who, while working a missing persons case, finds that a few zombies have been cut to pieces.

For Barry, the project marks his follow-up since Syfy's Canadian import Continuum ended its four-season run in early October.

Dead Mann Walking comes as The CW has found critical success with a procedural twist on comic book adaptation iZombie and as AMC's The Walking Dead continues to be the biggest show on TV among the all-important adults 18-49 demographic.

Barry is repped by Verve and Jackoway Tyerman. Petrucha is with Gersh.